Complaint Review: Bob's Discount Furniture - taftville Connecticut

My husband and I bought about $4,000 worth of furniture at Bob's in November of 2009. Everything looked like it was well made when we saw it in the showroom and the lady who was selling the stuff of course was nice, since at that point the company wants everything to look good so we can give them thousands of dollars and have a false sense of security that it's worth it. We bought our furniture (coffee table, entertainment center, dining room set, bed and mattress, bureau) and paid the extra money for the goof proof service.

When we got our furniture delivered some of it was on backorder for a couple months, which we were patient about. However, the poor craftmanship of the furniture started to show very soon. They delivery guys attached one of the doors of the entertainment center wrong so the it only moved slightly and wouldn't open or close... we closed the door and the wood snapped were the screws were put in wrong. The other door has to be lifted with some force and held up and pushed closed, and it doesn't seem to quite fit evenly. They told us that the two large pieces (the lighted shelving part and the part with the doors and where the tv goes) would looked crooked because the floor of my apartment wasn't even and I believed them. However we moved to another apartment and it looks the same. The top surface of our bureau looked fine at first, but laying on my side one day I noticed that it was bowed upwards so that it was completely detached from the top drawers and I could see all the nails. Shortly after it also developed what looks and feels like a few solid bubbles in the finish. The paint in the chairs of the dining room table quickly wore off on the edges (we have no children and those are chairs on the side we never sit on, chairs we never move). The finish on the table is getting dull and scratched quickly despite our strict use of coasters and placemats. the finish on the coffee table is also messed up. On part of the bed there is a piece of wood that was obviously chipped off and glued back on but not lined up exactly where the chip broke off (that's why it was so obvious to me). Anyway, those are the craftsmanship problems.

Here are the problems with the service: We called Bob's in November to get the entertainment door fixed since that was a very large and obvious problem that ruined the appearance of my living room (it looks really, really bad to have an entertainment center with a door snapped off, picture it in your head). They said they would have the door in April. Ok. Well sometime before April was when I noticed the bowing of the bureau so we called Bob's again so they could fix that too. In the meantime I got some hardware in the mail for the door. Alright, fine. On the scheduled day in someone did come and he fixed the bureau well (but I credit him individually and not Bob's as a company, since it seems nobody else working there cares). That was good. When April came we called to get the door fixed. They asked if I still had the hardware (why should the customer have that btw? Why don't the delivery men bring it with the furniture?). Of course, after some time a tiny bag like that is going to disappear. I said I don't know where it is, and asked them to send me it again and I'll keep it safe (also I was expecting the door soon). They said I had to pay for it. Now it's not terribly expensive, but I paid for the goof proof, shouldn't that sort of thing be included free with the furniture? I said no thanks I'll see if it turns up (we were really broke at the moment so any small amount of money was a big deal). Anyway that's not a big deal, just shows how Bob's is. They said they couldn't do anything without the hardware and they wouldn't have the door until June. *Sigh* so we waited and called again in June. Not available until August, they will call us when it's available. We waited until September and then called them. They said the piece wouldn't be available for a while but my husband said we have been waiting since November and they keep saying they will fix that and they don't. The lady on the phone said ok don't make them wait any longer, just replace the whole entertainment center. My husband said to me this was their last chance to get it right, before we complain and demand a refund instead of a new one. We updated our address since by now we had moved to another apartment. The delivery was scheduled for later that week. That morning my husband emptied the old entertainment center. I waited around the house all day for them to show and they never did. We asked the leasing office downstairs if they came by and they said no. We called Bob's and complained that they never showed and that we don't even want a replacement anymore we just want our money back. They said that they did try but went next door instead. Stupid excuse and honestly I do not believe they ever came, since the leasing office said no Bob's truck ever came by. If they had been there the office would know because the truck would have to stop for several minutes and ring doorbells (there are locked doors to every building before the regular apartment doors), and after that they should have come to the office to ask which specific address it was if they were too stupid to look at the numbers on the buildings. Well anyway my husband didn't say all that, he was polite and said we do not want the entertainment center anymore. We have been waiting too long and they keep messing up, we want a refund. But the lady absolutely refused to give us a refund. What kind of business doesn't at the very least give store credit or a certificate for a major mistake and inconvenience a client went through? Even fast food places give free meals or gift certificates and apologize!!! Even thrift stores give store credit!! Well needless to say my husband and I will never, EVER buy furniture from them again and we will tell lots and lots of people to not go there. Those people will probably tell other people and visitors to this website who read this won't shop there either. If they don't want a bad reputation and good business, they better change how they do business and build better furniture.